Armstrong, 49, who has never been a head coach on any level and previously had never interviewed for an NFL head coaching post, spent at least four hours with each team as part of a wham-bam Friday-Saturday in Atlanta during the Falcons' first-round playoff bye. He didn't get a second interview, but all three teams complied with the Rooney Rule, which requires at least one minority interview for each head coaching job.

I wonder if Armstrong was used for sham, token interviews. It's less likely in the Eagles' case, as Lurie also interviewed Lovie Smith, who like Armstrong is African American.

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Armstrong couldn't care less about such cynicism.

"If I have the opportunity," he says, "I'm going to take it."

Since the Rooney Rule was instituted in 2003, just one team was disciplined for not complying. Former Detroit Lions president Matt Millen didn't interview a minority after then-Pittsburgh Steelers secondary coach Tim Lewis (now with the Falcons) pulled out and longtime assistant Sherman Lewis declined to interview because he sensed the next coach already had been picked.

Millen, who hired Steve Mariucci, was fined $200,000.

That same year, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' telephone interview with Dennis Green was looked into as a possible violation. But Green told the league, as he told me, he thought his interview was legit.

Jones hired Bill Parcells and didn't deny he was his target all along. I remember him telling me he thought Green, who he had gotten to know during their work on NFL committees, was a good Plan B.

As Jones put it, "You know how Parcells can change his mind."

Armstrong, whom I met for the first time at the NFL career development symposium this week, thinks the Rooney Rule is still needed yet maintains he doesn't think that's why he got three interviews this year. I'd have to disagree with him on the latter point, but love his upbeat spirit.

At the symposium, New York Giants owner John Mara urged coaches to take interviews even if they didn't think they had a shot at a job.

"You never know what's going to happen two years down the road," Mara said.

And in the NFL, word gets around. Maybe that's why Armstrong — a former Temple running back who has coached on the college and pro levels on both sides of the ball — drew such interest on the circuit this year.

But Armstrong has another issue to face. Of the eight new coaches this year, seven burnished their credentials on the offensive side of the ball.

Offense is the flavor of the year.

"You can either coach or you can't," Armstrong said. "I can coach alligator wrestling. If you give me a videotape, I can come back and coach it an hour later."

Bill Belichick once coached special teams. Marv Levy, who won four consecutive AFC titles with the Buffalo Bills during the 1990s, is a former special-teams coach. And John Harbaugh, once a longtime special-teams coach, just guided the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl crown.

"A guy who, obviously, knows how to manage people," Armstrong said of Harbaugh.

Armstrong knows that's essential to the job of head coach.

Listen to him sell it.

"I deal with cornerbacks and wide receivers; I deal with offensive linemen and defensive linemen," he said. "A lot of times you're trying to get guys to accept roles they may not want. It's like, 'They brought me in here to be a receiver.'

And this is why I think the Rooney Rule is such a load of bull crap. All it did was force teams to make hollow interviews with candidates they have little interest in so they can say they covered the bases.

Most teams know who they want to take over the helm if they drop kick their current head coach. Whether he be white or black they know who they want. If they can't get him then a larger search ensues which could have any variation of skin colors attached to it.

The basic concept of the rule is racist anyways since it was originally intended to try and get more black candidates hired. Not necessarily to get more minority candidates hired.

I'd love to go into a 1000-word essay on what I disagree with your post, dirty, but I'd be pulling a number of points already mentioned in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17994

The Rooney Rule is flawed, but IMO necessary. The core issue is that the league is segregated along racial lines. Now in the past the racist mentality was that to put whites at the "cerebral/leadership" positions, which were in the middle of the field such as QB, C, MLB, and S. And they put blacks at the "athletic" positions on the outside, such as CB, DE, WR, RB, etc. Those lines of demarcation have blurred in recent decades, but you don't have to look to hard to see there is still a legacy there as the ratio of white players vs. black players at certain positions is striking.

And that continues into coaching, as blacks coach the positions they played, while whites coach the positions they played. And particularly on offense, the majority of offensive coordinators are QB and OL coaches. And while it might not be completely accurate to say whites dominate those positions on the playing field, they certainly do so along the sideline at those positions.

And as stated in that previous thread, the majority of coaching hires are former coordinators. And while blacks don't have as much issue becoming defensive coordinators, the league's currently trajectory is likely to favor offensive-minded coaches because the rules make it easier for teams to be better on that side of the ball. And thus I think for the foreseeable future, I think teams will hire more offensive-minded coaches and the overwhelming majority of them will likely be whites.

And likely for ST coaches like Keith Armstrong, despite John Harbaugh's success in Baltimore, I don't see them getting a huge number of opportunities. Certainly probably more than they would have gotten prior to 5 years ago, but as you stated dirty, they know who they want, and that's often going to be the hottest offensive coordinator in the league, and ultimately that's going to be more often than not white coaches.

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